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Competing at the top requires more that simply pumping additional money into an organization.  A solid base like the “Peerless Pyramid” is quite simply the starting point, and while organization will not guarantee business success, a poorly organized structure will guarantee business failure.  Performing at the top of your market requires going beyond a solid structure- it requires binding that structure together with solid business processes starting with: 

1. Recognize the Process
2. Formalize the Process
3. Simplify the Process
4. Repeat the Process
5. Flawless implementation
6. Measurable results
7. Continuous improvement

John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil of Ohio, has been referred to as a “robber baron” for his aggressive business tactics.  He has been accused of selling his products below market rates to drive competition out of business.  Trained as an accountant, Rockefeller was loathe to selling at a loss and would not have elected to sell at a loss for the length of time needed to drive out the competition.  Instead his attention focused on the business manufacturing processes and reducing costs.

Rockefeller understood that through the vertical integration control of the whole manufacturing process, from oil extraction to refining, must become part of the Standard Oil business model.  He recognized that processes are key to efficiency and that these efficiencies produced lower costs so that the basic business formula (buy low, sell high and keep the difference) worked.  It worked extremely well for him and the thousands of millionaires he created.  It all started with cutting costs, which was the key to success at Standard Oil of Ohio. 

Recognition and formalization, or writing, of a process need to take place before simplification and repetition take on meaning.  These topics have been discussed in previous articles in this series and bring us to implementation and results. 

This series began referencing professional sports teams and how it must feel to be the best of the best.  All professional football teams have designed plays and a playbook, i.e. business processes.  The difference between the top teams and the bottom isn’t the complexity, number, repeatability or quality of the plays. It’s the execution or implementation of these plays that separates the top from the bottom.

In 1959, Vince Lombardi became the head coach for the Green Bay Packers.  At that time they had one of the worst records in professional football.  In their previous five seasons they had won only 18 out of 60 games, and in 1958, they won only 1 game.  At Lombardi’s first team meeting, the first day of training camp he stood before the team juggling a football in one hand.  In the complete silence of the locker room came his first words, “Gentlemen, this is a football.”  Lombardi took the team back to the fundamentals of the game, and they practiced blocking, tackling, running, catching, kicking and passing until the basics became second nature again.  The 1959 Packer team won 7 games and went on to become the best of the best during the 1960’s under his coaching. 

In a business it is the same – “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a dollar.”  The goal of every business is to earn them.  Most business people focus on the dollar and either forget or don’t realize what a successful collection process means.  They must not only understand the underlying fundamentals but also know how to execute the processes until the implementation becomes second nature again.  When you are at the point that you don’t even think about the process, you will be able to focus on the customer.  That’s what flawless implementation looks like.  This “flawless implementation” of solid business processes will take your company to the top.

What does it feel like to be the best of the best?  At the moment of victory, it feels great.  What did it take to get into that position?  It takes hours and hours of practicing the basics, until they become second nature.  A business person that chooses to compete at the top of their market will reap the rewards, but they simply need to understand it is a lot harder than it looks.  Just remember during all of that implementation to remind yourself that it is a goal worth pursuing.

Let me know if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions.
Write David W. Weatherholt at david@bnewsviews.com

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